Once Upon a Time in the Midwest
by Alexandria Moon
Summary: People went to America to change their lives. One detention usually isn't the way people change their lives, but after meeting resident criminal John Bender in a reunion of The Breakfast Club, Kat Rathbone may get a little more than she bargained for. M for language and later themes.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, so this is my most recent brainchild. I love _The Breakfast Club_ (R.I.P. John Hughes) and I'm sort of just going with whatever pops into my head for this story. The title is an homage to Sergio Leone's films _Once Upon a Time in the West_ and _Once Upon a Time in America_. This story might go to some pretty strange places, but thanks again for taking the time to read it! On with the story! Reviews and criticisms alike are appreciated.

* * *

_December 15, 1984_

It was another Saturday detention, and Claire Standish was furious. She had failed a math test, and the teacher thought that she needed more time to study. So what did he do? Stick her in another goddamn Saturday detention! Her father hadn't been happy, and neither had she. What else did Saturday detentions (usually) hold? Her ex-boyfriend, John Bender, the "bad boy" of Shermer High. They had had a somewhat decent relationship, until he claimed she was getting too clingy, and had subsequently broken up with her.

But when Claire arrived early at detention, she was surprised to see the Breakfast Club altogether again, with the exception of Andy, who either hadn't shown up yet, or simply didn't have detention (and if that was the case, he was lucky.) But not two moments after the thought of Andy's luck crossed Claire's mind, Andy entered the room, with a girl next to him. Not his girlfriend, Allison, but another girl. Allison didn't look fazed, which made Claire think perhaps it was a friend of Andy's who had also gotten detention. But Claire didn't recognize the girl, and she was curious to learn who she might be.

The girl was pretty, Claire thought. She was relatively short, maybe standing at about five foot one. Thin, with small breasts and a pretty nice ass. She was wearing a short black dress (which made her look sort of witchy) over black hose – dressed more like someone from the 70s than from the 80s. She had bright blue eyes and long dark brown hair that tumbled over her shoulders and ended between her shoulder blades.

"Andrew!" came an angry shout.

The Breakfast Club groaned as they heard the voice of Mr Vernon, who looked annoyed as hell about the fact that someone he hadn't given detention was there.

"Yes, Mr Vernon?" Andy turned and smiled innocently at the man.

"Who is this?" Vernon demanded.

"This is my friend, Kat. She's new here from England and I'm supposed to watch over her and show her around Shermer. You gave me detention, and I had to bring her with me."

"England, you say?" Vernon's eyes showed his interest. A foreign exchange student of some form didn't seem so bad. Perhaps she could culture these uncouth heathens! "Well, all right. Miss Kat you can move around if you'd like, but don't speak a word to these delinquents! The rest of you… you know the rules."

The door was quick to slam behind Vernon (no one had ever bothered with replacing the screw that John had stolen so long ago), and the five friends all breathed sighs of relief, before four pairs of curious eyes set themselves down on Kat, who had taken a seat next to Andy.

"Hello." Brian was the first to speak, with a smile, "I'm Brian. It's nice to meet you, Kat."

"And very nice to meet you too Brian," Kat replied with a thick English accent. She spoke with a mixture of an Estuary English and a Liverpudlian accent; think David Tennant's Doctor mixed with Paul McCartney.

"Who the fuck are you?"

Claire rolled her eyes; trust Bender to be such a prick.

"Excuse me?" Kat turned with a raised eyebrow to Bender, who had swung his feet up onto the desk and generally looked as though he owned the place.

"I said…" he replied pointedly, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm Katherine Rathbone. I live with my mother. She and Andrew's mum were good friends as children, so she figured it would be a good idea for him to show me 'round while she sets up the house," Kat replied.

"Rathbone? The name is familiar," Brian said.

"Basil. My grandfather," Kat said with a hint of pride in her voice.

"I'm Claire," Claire smiled at the girl, who smiled back, "The other girl over there is Allison, and I see you've met the prick, John Bender."

"Ah yes, I know all about all of you," Kat smiled, "Andrew told me about his friends. Well, it's very nice to meet you all. Even you… Mr Bender." She gave a short glare to Bender, but offered a friendly smile nevertheless.

Andy had already taken a seat and kicked his feet up.

"So what the hell are we supposed to do for eight hours?" he asked the room.

"We could interrogate the Queen of England," Bender let a coy smirk play across his face, and Kat raised an eyebrow.

"Unfortunately for you, Mr Bender, Queen Elizabeth is probably in Buckingham Palace, and therefore completely unavailable for interrogation. And if you tried, you'd be on the ground before you could so much as speak a word."

"Don't you understand the meaning of sarcasm?"

"Don't you?"

Claire watched with amusement at the bickering between the prick and the British girl. She had a feeling today was going to be a very interesting day.


	2. Chapter 2

Lunch finally came, and when it did Kat pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her bag and lit the match on her shoe.

"You know we can't smoke in here right?" Brian said softly.

"I know," she smiled. "That's half the fun." Brian returned her smile before digging into his lunch. Claire had a fine lunch of what looked like caviar and sushi – an odd combination. Bender didn't have anything, and Alison just sort of combined her lunch into one thing. Hey it all goes to the same place, right? Andy took out a monstrous lunch, causing everyone to chuckle. They remembered the good old detention. As Kat smoked she nibbled on marmite and bread before eating a blueberry scone with Devonshire cream – a very English lunch. Bender glared.

"Are you hungry Mr Bender?" Kat asked in a tone that was meant to be sincere, but sounding slightly mocking.

"Why do you care?"

"Because I'm a half-way decent person," Kat replied honestly. "Do you want some marmite and bread?"

"What the fuck is that?" Bender asked.

"It's a sort of yeast extract. It's like our peanut butter and jelly."

Bender eyed the bread warily. He _was_ hungry. His mother hadn't had time to make breakfast for him before detention because she was too busy organizing just enough of a breakfast for his father. He fucking hated his father. The way his mother showed that she still cared was by leaving him a mug of black coffee on the stained kitchen counter. Whatever marmite was, it was food, and food was all that mattered.

Bender hated the taste, but he ate every last bite of it to ease the pang of hunger in his stomach. But just because the fucking English Princess was nice enough to feed him didn't mean anything. She was still a bitch, or at least that's what he kept telling himself.

"So limey, what is it you do?" Bender asked as he kicked his feet up.

Kat chewed her bite of scone and swallowed before answering. "Well, I like to act in plays – I took some drama classes in London. Oh, I like to read, a lot actually. I wouldn't mind teaching literature at Manchester or Oxford. The Romantics are my favourites."

"So you're going back across the pond then?" Bender sounded a little relieved.

"Why do you care, Bender?" Andy spoke for his friend, narrowing his eyes at the criminal.

"What happened to the good vibrations sporto?" Bender snapped.

"Why do you have to be such an asshole?" Andy growled.

"Stop it!" Claire shouted. When both men turned to look at her she snapped her hands up over her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. You two are acting like a couple of babies!"

Bender stuck his tongue out at her.

"Oh very mature," Kat muttered.

"What's with the witchy woman persona?" Bender shot.

"So I like Stevie Nicks. Give me a break," Kat said, happily thinking of her _Rumours_ album waiting at home. She hoped it hadn't been lost on the flight over. Unsatisfied with being unable to get a rise out of her, Bender stood up and slammed his hands down on her table. Kat jumped.

"Say one mean word to her Bender and I'll rip your guts out," Andy warned.

"Calm down sporto," Bender said, before turning his attentions to Kat. "So tell me about yourself."

"Wh-what do you want to know?" Kat mentally cursed herself for letting her slight intimidation show. No one could blame her. Bender was scary when he wanted to be. But she remembered her mother's words: _No one can make you feel inferior without your consent_. Someone famous had said that, but she didn't remember who. It was her mother's motto, and rightly so. Kat took a long drag on her cigarette and slowly blew the smoke in his face. In her mind she thought of Stevie Nicks and Bridgette Bardot. Confidence of Stevie, and the seductiveness of Bardot. It was at least worth a shot – maybe Bender would get off her fucking case. It was another acting role. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know." The words came out in something similar to a purr. Everyone was taken off guard. Her mother would have been proud.

"Favourite colour."

"Blue."

"Favourite band."

"Fleetwood Mac."

"Happiest memory?"

"My dad walking out."

That was an answer they weren't expecting.

"Saddest memory?"

"The day he came back." Andy gently rubbed his friend's hand. He was about ready to rip Bender a new one, but Kat just shook her head. "Anything else you want to know Mr Bender?" his named rolled off of her tongue with a cloud of smoke. Brian and Claire were struggling to keep themselves from laughing.

"What's so bad about your dad?" Bender asked defiantly.

"Do you mean what's wrong with him? Absolutely nothing. Never laid a hand on me. He had a vicious tongue, I'll give him that. It was what he did to my mum that I don't like. Don't even think about asking me what that was, Bender." With the last sentence, her tone changed into a snarl.

"Is he still there?" Bender inquired.

"Ha!" Kat barked. She was about to continue, but the angry yell of Principal Vernon stopped her.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Bender leapt back to his seat, his face the ultimate picture of innocence as Vernon burst into the room through the still-broken door. The Principal looked around the room. Everyone looked innocent: Bender was twiddling his thumbs and staring at the grooves in the wooden desk; Kat had put out her cigarette and was in the middle of a book of Lord Byron's poetry; Allison was drawing something in her sketch pad; Claire had her head down on the desk; Brian was working on math homework; Andy was doodling on a scrap piece of paper.

Vernon wasn't fooled by their innocence. "Who screamed?"

"Me, sir," Kat said, not looking up from her book. "Sorry, got a bit too into the poetry."

This excuse seemed to satisfy Vernon, but he caught John Bender giving him a funny look. "What was that Bender?"

"What was what, sir?" Bender asked in a mocking voice.

"That face you made just cost you another Saturday."

"Oh I'm thrilled sir. I'll need something to do when we get back from Christmas break."

"Oh good," Vernon growled. "Because your lip just bought you another."

"She screamed and she gets off?"

"Another."

Bender just stared. The Breakfast Club was watching fight between the Principal and the Criminal with bated breath. It wasn't even 8:30 and Bender had just bought himself three weeks of detention. All anyone was thinking was _how?_ How in the world could anyone be that… dumb? Not insulting Bender's intelligence, but Kat thought you had to be a dumbass. But the Breakfast Club saw the lost look on Bender's face. He knew how to get himself into trouble, and he was smart, but he didn't care. It was heart-breaking.

Vernon stormed out of the room when Bender wouldn't offer up a fight.

"Dumbass," Kat mumbled.

Bender flipped her off. "Bitch."

"Enough," Allison said firmly. She saw the angry look on her boyfriend's face. This is why she loved Andy. He cared so much about his friends. He would have ripped Bender apart if the rest of the people in the library wouldn't have stopped him. "Why don't you two just leave each other alone?"

And that's exactly what they did. For nine hours, the Brit and the criminal ignored one other. She didn't care. With any luck, they wouldn't have to see each other again. It might be a good time to mention that Kat Rathbone wasn't the luckiest girl (unless it was poker.) This was one of those things where Lady Luck decided to not be on her side.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm sorry about Bender," Andy said as he and Allison walked Kat home. "I should have warned you about him."

"You did, sort of," Kat laughed as she smoked another cigarette. "It's fine. I can handle arseholes like him."

The streets of Shermer were fairly quiet around this time of the afternoon. Everyone was downtown or out of town shopping for Christmas. It was a nice time to walk, with the snow crunching under their feet. When they arrived outside a nice, blue house with a white-picket fence, Kat turned to her friends.

"Well this is where we leave you then," Allison smiled and threw her arms around the girl. "We should hang out sometime."

"We run an open house," Kat waved to the house behind her. "At least, we will when the house is set up. Who lives there?" she pointed at the somewhat rundown house next to hers. It was obvious that someone cared about the house once, as there were some half-hearted attempts to fix it up, but in general it looked weatherworn and halfway abandoned.

"No idea." Andy shrugged. "But hey, give me a call whenever you want to do something. We still on for Christmas dinner?"

"Yeah," Allison and Kat nodded at the same time. Andy chuckled. He'd forgotten he'd asked his girlfriend to dinner.

"Alright. Well good luck with the neighbours I guess." Andy pulled the British girl into a hug before he and Allison walked away hand-in-hand through the wintry afternoon.

Kat pushed open the gate and walked up the snowy path to the steps. She walked up the three little steps to the front porch and went into the house. There was a fire blazing in the grate, and the sound of Dean Martin singing Christmas carols erupted from her mother's stereo in the den. Her mother was on the couch, drinking coffee with a woman Kat had never seen before. Upon sight of her shivering daughter, Elisabeth Rathbone stood from the couch and smiled.

"Judy, this is my daughter, Katherine. Kat, this is Judy Bender, our neighbour."

Kat dropped her bag, not caring if she broke something. "I'm sorry, did you say your last name was Bender?" She knew she was being rude, but she had to make sure.

"Yes," Judy Bender said kindly. "Judy Bender. My husband is Dean, and my son is John. He's the same age as you."

Kat groaned, and Judy took on a slightly offended look.

"Excuse her. She's had a long day," Elisabeth said, making excuses while shooting a glare at her daughter. "She hasn't had her nap."

Kat took this as a cue to disappear upstairs. Of all the rotten luck in the world, she had to be neighbours with Bender. Well, at least she knew his first name now. John. She didn't like it. It reminded her of a stuffy politician, but then, I suppose he couldn't help what his parents named him. The only John she ever had overwhelming affections for was John Watson. She pushed open her bedroom door and sneezed. Her mother had left the window open, and the tiny room was fucking _freezing_.

Kat ran over and slammed the window down, but as she did so she noticed that John Bender was at the window, smoking a cigarette and staring at the ground. Lucky her. She just happened to pick the room right across from Bender's. She had to admit he was attractive, but even seeing him stark naked wouldn't make up for anything.

She flopped onto her bed, staring up at the poster of Robert DeNiro on the ceiling. If it ever came to seeing Bender, she would just look at the ceiling (probably.) The cold had made her mattress hard as a rock, unfortunately, but she was so damn tired from the day that she could probably just fall asleep.

Or at least she could have if she didn't hear the sound of something hitting her window. She looked over and saw Bender chucking little pebbles across the way. Groaning, she rolled off of her bed and slammed into the ground. With another groan she got up and opened the window.

"Are you always going to be this annoying?"

Bender was floored. "_You're_ my new neighbour?"

"Yeah I am," Kat snapped. "Take a picture Bender, it'll last longer." She almost shut the window, but Bender said something that she didn't quite catch. "I'm sorry?"

"I said 'wait.'"

Kat opened the window a little farther and rested her elbows on the sill. "Wait for what, Bender? You have my undivided attention. What could you possibly want with it?"

Bender said nothing. Kat snorted and slammed the window shut, and closed the windows for good measure. The front door opened and slammed shut, and Kat took that as a sign that Mrs Bender was going home to her drunkard husband and delinquent son.

"Kat! I'm going out tonight with Cindy!" Elisabeth shouted up the stairs. Kat wasn't really surprised. Cindy Clark had always been a socialite, and Elisabeth bonded with her for a similar reason. So of course, their second night in a new home, and Kat was already going to be alone.

"Whatever!"

Fucking hell.


	4. Chapter 4

_10:22 pm_

Kat was curled up in a ball on the couch, a half-eaten bag of M&Ms in one hand, a huge cup of coffee in the other, and tears welling up in her eyes as Robert DeNiro told James Woods that he turned in a dead friend long ago to save his life.

_Tap tap tap_.

Kat let out a banshee-like scream and spilled coffee all over herself as she whirled around to stare at the window. John Bender was already pushing the unlocked window up and climbing his way into the house. Kat just stood there with her jaw dropped as the criminal came over and plopped down on her couch.

"What are we watching?" he asked with the same tone you might expect to hear in a conversation about the weather.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Kat shrieked.

"Watching something apparently. What is it we're watching?"

"_Once Upon a Time in America_. Again, what the bloody hell are you doing in my house?"

"Parents are beating the shit out of each other and I got bored listening to it. I know your mom went out for the night, so I figured you'd want some company."

"I have a cat. He's plenty company for me," Kat grumbled, but made no move to kick him out. Instead, she picked up the kitchen towel she'd brought into the den and began wiping the coffee off of her sopping top. "Besides, you've just walked in on the end. Not going to do you much good now."

"What's on after this?" Bender asked, picking up the TV Guide and ignoring her.

"_Arsenic and Old Lace_… I think. Bender, just because you're bored doesn't mean you can just break into my house and sit on my couch and watch my telly!"

"Then kick me out," Bender shrugged.

Kat sat there and stared at him. She knew if she told him to leave, he would probably leave. But a guy like John Bender probably didn't have a lot of friends. So she let him stay, and they watched _Arsenic and Old Lace _together, not saying much of anything.

"So I guess your dad never came back, did he?" Bender asked in the middle of the movie.

"Didn't have a chance. We skipped town, err… country, before he could talk my mum into getting back together with him. What are your parents fighting about?"

"Same old, same old. She burnt his dinner or didn't fold his socks right or didn't slap me straight. Whatever he can think of. He'll throw some punches and she'll wear long sleeved shirts for a week or two. He never touches her face." Bender was saying this nonchalantly, but Kat had a feeling that he stayed so emotionless so he wouldn't show his humanity. Elisabeth pulled her car into the drive, and Bender took it as his cue to leave. "Thanks for the distraction, limey. I guess I'll see you around." And before Elisabeth had even put the key in the door, John Bender was already in his room, smoking a cigarette and listening to a Bob Dylan record. Just like that, Bender had disappeared.

"Hello sweetie!" Elisabeth said brightly as she came into the room. "How was your evening."

"Err… strange, I suppose," Kat replied. Elisabeth raised an eyebrow, but when it became obvious that Kat wasn't going to elaborate any further, she sighed and came to kiss her daughter's forehead and sit down on the couch.

"Sweetheart, I need to ask you a favour."

Kat sighed and pressed 'mute' on the television remote. "Yes mum?"

"I really enjoy Judy's company, and I think it would be nice if you got to know her son. I know you know Andrew, but I think it would be good for you if you tried to make some friends in this town: we're going to be here for a while."

"Mum, I've met Judy's son and he's a complete jackass," Kat groaned. "I mean… maybe not a _total_ jackass, but he's not anyone I care to spend more than a couple of hours around."

Elisabeth gave her a forlorn look. "Please? For your dear old mum?"

"Mum…" Kat rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Katherine Keith Rathbone, do I have to lock you two in a room together and throw away the key? All I'm asking is that you hang out with him, just for one day. I know it would make Judy happy, and it would make me happy too." Kat groaned and covered her own face with a pillow, biting it so she wouldn't scream. Elisabeth let a broad grin break out over her face – she knew that she'd won. "And besides, your term doesn't start until after the holidays, so you might have more than just Andrew as a friend when you start school."

Kat refused to move the pillow from her head, and after a few minutes she heard the familiar sounds of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Damn that woman. She moved the pillow away only to realise that her mum had left her a new cup of coffee and a Cadbury bar before going upstairs to bed.

_Maybe_, just _maybe_, hanging out with Bender wouldn't be too bad.


End file.
